Schools brace for impact of less federal funding

Some districts will likely reduce services

Mar. 8, 2013

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Federal funding to help educate Missouri’s low-income and special education students is expected to take a big hit during the next school year.

Springfield, like other districts, is grappling with how to maintain staffing and services with fewer resources.

That loss of federal funds, commonly referred to as “sequestration,” is the result of automatic spending cuts triggered last week when Congress failed to agree on budget terms.

“Even though sequestration took effect March 2, it won’t affect our federal programs in Springfield Public Schools until the next fiscal year,” said Brian Hubbard, the district’s director for Title I, which aims to level the playing field for low-income students. “The estimated reductions will be approximately 5.3 percent.”

That translates into a funding drop of nearly $415,000 for programs to help low-income students and $250,000 for special education.

State Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro said the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is still awaiting federal guidance about how the funding cut will impact individual districts.

“The numbers are pretty staggering. Right now, our biggest challenge is trying to figure out how those numbers translate to the local level,” she said. “It’s not just an across-the-board cut of 5 percent.”

Ron Lankford, deputy commissioner of education, said “sequester” will cut roughly $30 million in federal funding to state schools.

“It will hurt,” he said. “It’s one of those things, the bigger you are, the more money you get. The district will probably have difficulty sustaining all the positions that have been funded with Title or special education.”

He said smaller districts, which typically receive less money, will likely have to scale back services.

Lankford points out that there have been targeted federal funding cuts in recent years.

“If districts had not incurred in the last four-five years, cuts to transportation and numerous other cuts, this by itself wouldn’t hurt them,” Langford said.

Federal funding for special education only pays for a portion of the services the district is required to provide to any eligible student. If the cuts hold, local funding will be expected to make up the difference.

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In a Tuesday presentation to the school board, Hubbard pointed out the “sequestration” cuts to Title I is equal to the salaries and benefits of at least eight staffing positions.

“Across the board, this results in a reduction of the amount of materials, services, perhaps staffing,” he said.

But Hubbard said the district may be able to absorb the cuts for next year without cutting any staff because it will likely have leftover funds from the current year.

That’s because Title I funding has been on a roller coaster this year. At the start of the year, Springfield’s $7.4 million allocation was cut by $900,000 and the district was required to “set aside” another $322,000 in anticipation of a mid-year cut.

However, that mid-year cut never materialized and the district has been extremely conservative in its spending. Plans to add back in additional staff and expand services to low-income students are on hold.

“We do have a large carryover in anticipation of sequestration next year,” he said. “... I think we’ll actually be in OK shape.”

Board member Kris Callen said the district’s reliance on federal funding makes it vulnerable to such cuts.

“The more local control and more local support we can have for our district, the better,” she said. “I think this is just only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg, of what’s going to happen.”